Kohler Generator service.Fair or ripoff?

[Magicfloat]

Have a good customer on the lake,her Formula has a Kohler genset.Out of Kohler warranty but within the Formulagard 5 year warranty.Weird problem with starting,sometimes will turn over,sometimes not.We checked it a couple of times,no problems.hard to fix something that is not broken when you are there.Owner decided to call the Bham Kohler dealer to see if they could find anything. They requested someone be there,so we sent our tech guy to meet him.They messed with it a couple of hours ,finally got it to mess up one time,both techs agreed it was just a bad $10 rocker switch.He had one on his truck in a complete circuit board but would not take it out of the board.My tech guy aggreed to get a switch locally and replace it.so no big deal. But the big deal is the bill my customer got by email 20 minutes later,$854. 2 hrs labor @ $110/hr, $220-2-1/2 hours travel time @ $110/hr ,$275,120 miles mileage(60 miles one way)at $2.50 mile,$300.$15 environmental impact fee,$40 misc shop supplies,$5 tax on envir fee and misc. Total $855. Customer is pretty upset,I can get some warranty reimbursement,but nowhere near that.I have never heard of charging for travel time plus mileage,seems like double dipping to me. The guy actually only plugged in his tester to the circuit board,every thing checked ok.rest of the time was spent waiting for his boss to call him back.The enviro fee was for oil disposal, there was no oil issue.The misc fee was for electrical tape,tystraps,supplies,etc,there was none of that.Looks like I should quit the boat biz and become a Kohler dealer. Am I wrong,or did my customer and I get ripped off? The guy was gone from his shop 4-1/2 hours,I don't dispute that.but my customer is in a similar business and she is livid over travel time plus mileage. Comments?

[Wobble]

Have a good customer on the lake,her Formula has a Kohler genset.Out of Kohler warranty but within the Formulagard 5 year warranty.Weird problem with starting,sometimes will turn over,sometimes not.We checked it a couple of times,no problems.hard to fix something that is not broken when you are there.Owner decided to call the Bham Kohler dealer to see if they could find anything. They requested someone be there,so we sent our tech guy to meet him.They messed with it a couple of hours ,finally got it to mess up one time,both techs agreed it was just a bad $10 rocker switch.He had one on his truck in a complete circuit board but would not take it out of the board.My tech guy aggreed to get a switch locally and replace it.so no big deal. But the big deal is the bill my customer got by email 20 minutes later,$854. 2 hrs labor @ $110/hr, $220-2-1/2 hours travel time @ $110/hr ,$275,120 miles mileage(60 miles one way)at $2.50 mile,$300.$15 environmental impact fee,$40 misc shop supplies,$5 tax on envir fee and misc. Total $855. Customer is pretty upset,I can get some warranty reimbursement,but nowhere near that.I have never heard of charging for travel time plus mileage,seems like double dipping to me. The guy actually only plugged in his tester to the circuit board,every thing checked ok.rest of the time was spent waiting for his boss to call him back.The enviro fee was for oil disposal, there was no oil issue.The misc fee was for electrical tape,tystraps,supplies,etc,there was none of that.Looks like I should quit the boat biz and become a Kohler dealer. Am I wrong,or did my customer and I get ripped off? The guy was gone from his shop 4-1/2 hours,I don't dispute that.but my customer is in a similar business and she is livid over travel time plus mileage. Comments?

I cant speak for on the water service, but I can tell you that my petrochemical customers will pay .50c mile + $75 bucks an hour travel time for a two man crew and a van filled with way more equipment than he could possibly use.

Last time I used onan factory service they ripped me a new hole, so I'm not really suprised

[JupiterSunsation]

Ripoff!

[2112]

I have a Cummins Genset at my house (V-6 Ford powered). Routine oil 5 qt.change is $600. Just to come to the house is a minimum $400, even if they are there for 1 minute.

Seems there are a lot of businesses that are going to make up for the slow down by charging their customers outlandish prices and fees.
.

[outriggers]

You shear a sheep many times, but you can only skin it once.

[Magicfloat]

Their office manager said the $40 Misc charge helped them on jobs when they had lots of extra stuff they had to use,so they just charged everyone $40 to even it out. My comment is not printable here.

[2112]

You shear a sheep many times, but you can only skin it once.

Well put.
.

[phragle]

You shear a sheep many times, but you can only skin it once.

that saying is now etched into permanent memory.....

[Bobcat]

what does a new one cost ??

[Expensive Date]

Rip off.Does he have a signed work order agreeing to those charges?

[cosmic12]

AAAA coughB*llS*it........How do these people stay in bis?

[Tony]

Dad got hosed a few years ago on an Onan genset repair. Had to pay almost two thirds the price of a new unit for a "circut board".

[32storm]

Definitely sounds like BS on a couple items, especially $40.00 for misc. Their mistake on another job(s), should not be your problem. Travel time is a legitimate expense. But, they should include a portion of their hourly rate charge to cover mileage. I have a written policy that customers receive on installation supervision/field engineering. It tells them exactly what services & costs they will be charged for, rates they'll pay, and how they are determined. It doesn't eliminate all the complaints, but has cut back substantially.

[old377guy]

when I've needed onsite service for any of my machinery (forklifts, refrigeration, etc.) I ask what the travel/mileage charges will be beforehand. I've been quoted some very unreasonable rates and I just politely decline, but let them know that the high mileage rates were the deal breaker. Best of luck to you Magicfloat.

[Magicfloat]

The problem is the new Kohlers are very hi-tech,fuel injection,circuit boards,takes sophisticated equipment to troubleshoot.Old gensets we can fix,but the new stuff is different.Only the factory service centers can handle this newer stuff.You pay their price or they don't come. They require a cc# before they will come.In the future I will have to tell the customer that I will file a warranty claim for what the 3rd party warranty company will pay,they are responsible for the difference. Hard to swallow for the customer when he has a 5 year warranty that covers the genset,but it only covers a couple of hundred $ of an $850 bill.In the Bham area,you have one service center to call,no other choices that I can see.Sucks

[Bobcat]

Robert , how much is the same one new ? is that a third of the cost ?

[Magicfloat]

Dealer cost if ordered with the boat $8100,could probrably buy for way less,but not a viable alternative.We will pay the $850,get partial warranty payment and move on.Maybe have a beer with everyone involved and call it a learning experience.

[BUIZILLA]

both sides of the coin here...

$110 in Bham?, my God the cost of living is high there... we get $95 in our area and the costs are substantially higher here...

for starters, the $2.50 a mile is ridiculous... we use .50 plus tolls and gas, I don't know anybody over $1.00

if there is no liquid service done, then the EPA fee's and enviro taxes simply can't apply in this case

the per hour driving time is industry standard, the dealer still pays the tech when driving, all overhead expenses stay constant, and if he wasn't driving then he could be doing another job charging the same $110/hr but maybe not driving, it's a given and accepted practice, we charge it or we don't go, period.

the local CAT dealer makes you put $2500 on a credit card before they leave the shop and refund whatever is left over after the first day, if it goes longer then you get banged daily so they stay wayyy ahead until the end then you get refunded, don't like it then call the CAT dealer 300-750 miles away, figure that mileage charge out...

so, with that said they are a tad out of line, but not by more than 10-12% and that's just the add on BS fee's

[Bobcat]

Dealer cost if ordered with the boat $8100,could probrably buy for way less,but not a viable alternative.We will pay the $850,get partial warranty payment and move on.Maybe have a beer with everyone involved and call it a learning experience.

thank you for answering that, my brain was stuck around 2k or so, this story speaks volumes about you and your business. best wishes

Bobcat

[Brownie]

A few years ago, I bought a 9KW Onan at the Dania flea market. The vendor, whom I knew, said that it ran, but didn't generate. I took it to a genius friiend's shop, and after a few tries, found the problem. I was a bad bridge rectifier. I called the local Onan dealer, and she said that the part was $76, and if I wanted it for next day, it would be $103. I said no, I'll wait. When I got to work on Monday, I looked up the exact same part, with the same number, from Digi-Key, and I had to buy 11 of them to make the $25 minimum order. I do not think that profit is dirty word, but jeez..................